GunnLeif Merl II 57^VIII

‘Lifir in danska         drótt at holdi,
gerir eyvit sér         ǫlðri at móti.
Því munu in tígnu         tíðmǫrk himins
ljósi sínu         frá lýð snúa.

‘In danska drótt lifir at holdi, gerir eyvit sér at móti ǫlðri. Því munu {in tígnu tíðmǫrk himins} snúa ljósi sínu frá lýð.

‘The Danish people will live on meat, do nothing to resist ale-drinking. Therefore {the glorious time-markers of heaven} [HEAVENLY BODIES] will turn their light away from the nation.

Mss: Hb(50v) (Bret)

Readings: [4] ǫlðri: ǫlð Hb

Editions: Skj AII, 20, Skj BII, 21-2, Skald II, 13-14; Bret 1848-9, II, 35 (Bret st. 57); Hb 1892-6, 276; Merl 2012, 118-19.

Notes: [All]: Cf. DGB 116 (Reeve and Wright 2007, 159.287-8; cf. Wright 1988, 114, prophecy 72): Ab eis uultus auertent sydera et solitum cursum confundent ‘The planets will look away from men and disrupt their customary paths’ (cf. Reeve and Wright 2007, 158). — [1-2] in danska drótt ‘the Danish people’: The apparently anti-Danish polemics are Gunnlaugr’s contribution; the foundation of a metropolitan see in Norway in 1153 severed older allegiances of the Icelandic bishoprics with Lund in what was then Denmark (cf. Foote 1975, 73). However, the adj. dansk may sometimes apply to Scandinavians generally, especially in the phrase dǫnsk tunga ‘Danish tongue’, which acquired the generalised meaning ‘Scandinavian language’ at least as early as the C11th (cf. Sigv Víkv 15/8^I and Note; see also SnE 1998, I, 52, 80). — [4] ǫlðri ‘ale-drinking’: Emended from ms. ǫlð (refreshed) (Poole 2009a, 312). The Hb text features regular use of superscript contraction for <ri>, e.g. in eit<ri> (fol. 51r l. 16), which could easily be obscured by refreshing. For the sentiment, compare ofdrykkja ‘excessive drinking’ (II 56/7); also II 52/3-4. The ms. reading is retained in Bret 1848-9, Skj B and Skald, evidently in the sense of ‘people’; in Skj B ll. 3-4 are translated loosely as og gör intet mod sig selv (sine lyster) ‘and does nothing against itself (its pleasures)’ (Bret 1848-9 similarly). Merl 2012 also retains the ms. reading, but with translation of ǫlð as Schicksal ‘fate’, which is hard to account for unless by confusion with ørlǫg ‘fate’.

References

1. Bibliography
2. Skj B = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1912-15b. Den norsk-islandske skjaldedigtning. B: Rettet tekst. 2 vols. Copenhagen: Villadsen & Christensen. Rpt. 1973. Copenhagen: Rosenkilde & Bagger.
3. Skald = Kock, Ernst Albin, ed. 1946-50. Den norsk-isländska skaldediktningen. 2 vols. Lund: Gleerup.
4. SnE 1998 = Snorri Sturluson. 1998. Edda: Skáldskaparmál. Ed. Anthony Faulkes. 2 vols. University College London: Viking Society for Northern Research.
5. Foote, Peter G. 1975. ‘Aachen, Lund, Hólar’. In Les relations littéraires Franco-Scandinaves au moyen âge: Actes du Colloque de Liège (avril 1972). Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l’Université de Liège 208. Paris: Société d’Editions ‘Les Belles Lettres’, 53-75. Rpt. in Foote 1984a, 101-20.
6. Hb 1892-6 = Finnur Jónsson, ed. 1892-6. Hauksbók udgiven efter de Arnamagnæanske håndskrifter no. 371, 544 og 675, 4° samt forskellige papirshåndskrifter. Copenhagen: Det kongelige nordiske oldskrift-selskab.
7. Bret 1848-9 = Jón Sigurðsson. 1848-9. ‘Trójumanna saga ok Breta sögur, efter Hauksbók, med dansk Oversættelse’. ÅNOH 1848, 3-215; 1849, 3-145.
8. Reeve, Michael D., and Neil Wright. 2007. Geoffrey of Monmouth. The History of the Kings of Britain. An Edition and Translation of De gestis Britonum [Historia regum Britanniae]. Woodbridge: Boydell.
9. Wright, Neil, ed. 1988. The Historia Regum Britannie of Geoffrey of Monmouth. II. The First Variant Version: A Critical Edition. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer.
10. Poole, Russell. 2009a. ‘In Quest of Saga Styles in Merlínússpá’. In Margrét Eggertsdóttir et al. 2009, 307-22.
11. Merl 2012 = Horst, Simone, ed. 2012. Merlínússpá. Merlins Prophezeiung. Munich: Herbert Utz Verlag.
12. Internal references
13. 2017, ‘ Unattributed, Breta saga’ in Margaret Clunies Ross (ed.), Poetry in fornaldarsögur. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 8. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 38. <https://skaldic.org/m.php?p=text&i=125> (accessed 4 May 2024)
14. Judith Jesch (ed.) 2012, ‘Sigvatr Þórðarson, Víkingarvísur 15’ in Diana Whaley (ed.), Poetry from the Kings’ Sagas 1: From Mythical Times to c. 1035. Skaldic Poetry of the Scandinavian Middle Ages 1. Turnhout: Brepols, p. 554.